For car audio also. Polk Audio made the best subs I ever had in a car (had JBL, Kenwood, Rockford Fosgate, many other brands). Polks hit the cleanest and hardest. The best were a pair of 10s in a bandpass box...people thought I had 15s. They were incredible.
Bose is good for home, but they're nothing special for cars. They're often installed as "premium" or upgraded factory systems. They usually have a small factory amp that allows them to sound better than the factory system. So yeah, they're a lot better than the base stock system, but I'd never upgrade to one. My wife's car had a Monsoon system from the factory, it thumped for a stock radio, but I've since replaced it with a Blaupunkt HU and Pioneer speakers (they're cheap) and it sounds better.
My favorite brands for car audio:
Subs - Polk Audio, prefer 10s for clarity, still plenty of bass
HU - Blaupunkt or Alpine, Eclipse is good too
Speakers - Infinity (have in my car) or Pioneer if on budget
Amps - Have had Alpines and Kenwood that were good, but the best bang-for-the-buck is California Amps made by Profile. They're very underrated and are awesome performers, especially for subs. Had one of these back in the day, still my favorite of all I owned. Was bulletproof too, survived 2 car accidents (nether my fault) and still kicked.
Now they look more like this:
And of course, I always did my own installs.